Last week, we wrote an article on how important it is for indie artists to have a social media strategy. Now that you’ve seen that it works, we’ll outline a basic guide to creating your own strategy and using it to effectively spread your music.

First, let’s talk about the most important platforms for your social media. A few that are absolutely necessary to indie musicians are YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Why are they the most important? When people first hear about your band or music, these are the first places they will look for more information.

YouTube: The second most used search engine on the Internet after Google. On this platform, it’s important to have good video content that can be easily found by potential fans. Organize your videos in different playlists so that fans that find your page can interact with content that interests them. Indie artists should remember to include their artist name in the titles of all of their videos, so that they appear regularly in the related section of other videos. Including the name of a similar artist can improve your chances in showing up in searches as well. Consider releasing a behind-the-scenes video series: fans love to feel involved in your day-to-day life!

Facebook and Twitter: While each has its own nuances, these are the two largest social media platforms available. It is useful to share your artist updates, original music, or media links related to your music on these platforms. If you believe you have viral video content, Facebook is a great place to share a viral video. Twitter is great for open dialogue, and you should be interacting with both fans and other artists that would interest your fan base. The important thing on both platforms is to be personable. Don’t just blast info at your fans, talk and listen to them too!

Instagram: This platform is one of the strongest ways to build your brand. Here you can release photos or videos of just about anything that interests you artistically. Many artists use Instagram to build excitement around an upcoming project, release a thank you message to fans, or even share a photo from their day. Again, be yourself and be there for your fans when they interact with you.

Of course, there are other platforms that can greatly benefit your social media presence. Snapchat and Vine have become extremely popular among the young demographic who enjoy following the real-time actions of their favorite artists. Some notable other platforms that artists connect to social media are Soundcloud for audio streaming, Songkick for ticketing and tour planning, and Periscope for live video streaming. When choosing between the remaining platforms, make the decision based on your fan base. Ask yourself: is this a platform that my fans would use? Can I provide them with engaging content or interact with them in a way they would enjoy?

After creating a strategy and implementing it across the platforms, you’ll want to see some form of results, whether it’s increased album sales or fans on Facebook. How much impact will you see? It’s hard to say, because the impact of the strategy will differ based on artist, genre, or energy put into your strategy. However, setting objectives for your strategy can help ensure that you see monetary results for your efforts.

The most important measurement of an artist’s social media is engagement. If you remember from our last article, piano rocker Matthew Ebel reported that he made roughly a quarter of his income from just 40 extremely devoted fans. From this, we learn that the size of your fan base is not nearly as important as how dedicated they are to you and your music. Once your fans are extremely engaged on social media, you aim for radio play or coverage on a prominent music blog or channel. If you’re successful in that, prominent musical analysts can list you as a trending artist. Being listed by Next Big Sound or NCM Underground gives you credibility across the indie music industry. At this point, you should be seeing a major increase in album sales and can think about planning a tour that will net you some reward for your hard work.

Majed Assais a marketing enthusiast and regular surfer of many online music outlets (his favorite is Hype Machine). As a marketing intern at Slammin Media, he has recently been exposed to the many online challenges facing indie musicians. You can follow his journey into the marketing industry on Twitter at @MajedAssa.

Slammin Media is an online, digital and social marketing company. We have successfully represented and promoted numerous indie artists over the years as they pursue their dream career in music. We take care of all aspects of promotion of their shows, tours and e-commerce, so they can focus on making art and music.